The invention relates to a rotary/pushbutton actuator having an annular rotary encoder which has an inner ring and a rotary ring, which can be rotated about an axis around the inner ring and has a dial, and is arranged such that it can be moved linearly with respect to a housing along the axis, and having an inner part which is arranged in an interior space in the annular rotary encoder and can be moved together with the annular rotary encoder with respect to the housing linearly along the axis, it being possible to initiate a momentary-contact function by linearly moving the dial and/or the inner part.
An operator control element of this type is known from U.S. Published Patent Application 2004/132498. This known operator control element can be rotated about an axis and can be moved along this axis of rotation and can be locked in a position on this axis. A ring encoder, which has an inner ring and an outer ring which can be rotated with respect to the inner ring, is provided for the purpose of detecting the rotary movement. A touch pad which enables a cursor to move on a display or allows text to be recognized may be arranged in the free interior space in the ring encoder. A joystick which detects a movement in an X-Y plane as a result of tilting and outputs corresponding electrical signals is arranged in the operator control element. The joystick is also in the form of a momentary-contact switch which detects a movement of the holder as a result of the operator control element being pressed. The design of the operator control element specified in U.S. Published Patent Application 2004/132498 has proven to be very complicated.